Showing posts with label drowsy driving. Show all posts

Road Safety and Drowsy Driving

Posted by Unknown in , , , , , , , , on Thursday, November 7, 2013

Each year, Drowsy Driving Prevention Week (DDPW, Nov. 3-10, 2013) focuses national attention on the significant threat posed by motorists who get behind the wheel while extremely tired. As we’ve discussed previously on this blog, our research shows that roughly one-in-six fatal crashes involves a drowsy driver. And, according to new survey data released this week from our latest Traffic Safety Culture Index, just about everybody thinks it’s unacceptable to drive when you’re having a tough time keeping your eyes open, but a substantial number of people do so anyway.

While we generally discuss drowsy driving within the context of our safety culture research, this week presents a valuable opportunity to highlight how this priority concern relates to another of our focus areas: road safety. Within the realm of traffic safety more broadly, “road safety” refers to the engineering and design features, maintenance, and operating conditions of the road network itself, including roadways and the roadside environment. Our research on pavement edge drop-offs, which examined how the design and construction of the road edge can influence certain types of crashes, is an example of this area of study.

But how can engineering considerations and road safety relate to drowsy driving? A common road safety principle is that a roadway should be forgivingof driver error. This means that the design of a road can help mitigate crash severity, or, even better, prevent crashes from happening in the first place. Installing rumble strips, for example, can prevent a drowsy driver from having a run-off-the-road crash, as the noise and vibration they cause are designed to jolt drivers back to attention. Similarly, median barriers – such as cable guardrail or jersey walls – can serve as a last line of defense for a drowsy driver by preventing or mitigating cross-over, head-on collisions.    

Our flagship effort to improve road safety across the country is the United States Road Assessment Program (usRAP), an operating program of the AAA Foundation. usRAP provides highway authorities a simple but robust way to make data-informed decisions for the safety of the motoring public. Using a video log of a roadway, for example, usRAP can analyze the engineering features of a given segment, assign a star safety rating (similar to the safety ratings commonly used for evaluating vehicles), and generate a safety investment plan to reduce the risks identified.

This week, in addition to commemorating DDPW, we were very pleased to celebrate the achievement of the Genesee County Road Commission in Michigan, which won a 2013 National Roadway Safety Award for utilizing the usRAP protocols to generate a county safety plan with an estimated benefit-cost ratio of 2.3. The Award was presented by the Federal Highway Administration and the Roadway Safety Foundation at a luncheon on Capitol Hill, with GCRC and usRAP staff in attendance.

While usRAP provides a valuable tool for the highway agencies nationwide that are responsible for building and maintaining safe roads, it is up to each of us as motorists to ensure that every time we get behind the wheel, we are prepared to use those safe roads safely. This requires being awake, alert, attentive, and sober – always. And at the AAA Foundation – which recently again received Charity Navigator’s coveted 4-Star rating – we’ll continue in our mission to provide the science and tools needed for drivers, highway authorities, and others to move Toward Zero Deaths on our roads.

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No Time for Complacency

Posted by Unknown in , , , , , , on Thursday, August 22, 2013

Readers familiar with our work will doubtlessly know what a strong emphasis we place on understanding and improving traffic safety culture in the United States. Starting with the 2007 publication of a compendium of articles by noted scholars, professionals, and advocates, we have since conducted annual surveys of the American public in order to measure and analyze the extent to which the nation’s motorists value and actively pursue safety on our roadways. Now, for the first time, we’ve taken a multi-year look at our Safety Culture Index surveys in order to analyze trends over time.

Troublingly, our new analysis appears to show that Americans have grown less concerned about key traffic safety hazards, such as impaired, drowsy, or distracted drivers. In 2009, for example, 90 percent of our survey respondents said they believed drivers operating a vehicle after consuming alcohol posed a very serious threat to their safety. This percentage has fallen every year since, however, reaching a low of 69 percent in 2012. For drowsy driving, these respective figures fell from 71 percent in 2009 to 46 percent in 2012.
Admittedly, we can’t determine from the survey data whether people believe these dangers pose less of a threat today because they think Americans have improved their driving behaviors overall, or because fewer people think the behaviors themselves are inherently dangerous. However, with 2012 showing a 5.3 percent increase in traffic fatalities over 2011 – the first annual increase in seven years – it’s clear that now is not the time for complacency, regardless of the reasoning.

To keep pushing the needle on safety culture, the Transportation Research Board has just concluded a two-day National Roadway Safety Culture Summit, which was sponsored by the AAA Foundation and attended by about 100 members of the traffic safety community. The Summit’s goal was to identify research needs in this area and “next steps” that can be implemented in communities nationwide. The findings will ultimately inform the Toward Zero Deaths – a National Strategy on Highway Safety effort that is being developed by the traffic safety community.
We will of course continue our research and education in the area of safety culture, with our immediate next step being to complete and publish the 2013 Traffic Safety Culture Index. As in recent years, certain issue-specific findings will be available in the fall, and the full survey will be released in January. To learn more about our trends report, please click here. For information about the AAA Foundation-sponsored TRB summit, please visit this page.

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Popular Foundation Brochures Now Available in Spanish

Posted by Unknown in , , , , , , , on Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Our mission at the Foundation is to “save lives through research and education,” and today we have taken an important step toward reaching a broader audience with our safety messaging. Our five most popular brochures are now available online in Spanish, and can be downloaded here free of charge.

Drawing upon the latest scientific findings of the Foundation’s research efforts, these brochures provide practical insights and tips for motorists and other road users in an effort to promote safety for all on the nation’s highways. The critical traffic safety topics addressed include:

-          Distractions in Everyday Driving
-          How to Avoid Drowsy Driving
-          How to Avoid Headlight Glare
-          The Older and Wiser Driver
-          Road Rage

We are very pleased to be able to expand our Spanish language offerings, and sincerely hope that these brochures will be valuable resources for driving schools, police departments, senior centers, community groups, and all of our safety partners who are trying to save lives and mitigate injuries on our roads.

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Nightmare on the Road

Posted by Unknown in , , , , , on Tuesday, July 31, 2012



On May 31st of last year, a bus on an overnight trip from North Carolina to New York City crashed; killing four people and injuring more than 50 after the fatigued driver fell asleep at the wheel. Today, after a thorough investigation,  National Transportation Safety Board Chairman Deborah Hersman put the blame on both the bus operator and federal regulators. 

Photo sourced from NBC Washington

While this crash was a tragic example of a commercial driver falling asleep at the wheel, this problem doesn’t only apply to those who drive for a living. In a 2010 study, the Foundation found that 2 out of 5 drivers (41%) reported ‘falling asleep or nodded off’ while driving at least once in their lifetime; one in 10 (11%) reported having done so within the past year, and 4% said they did so in the past month. 

Sleepiness can cause slower reaction time, lapses in judgment, vision impairment and delays in processing information. Studies has shown that being awake for more than 20 hours results in an impairment equal to a blood alcohol content of .08%, which is the legal limit in all states. In other words, drowsy driving can be just as dangerous as drunk driving!

The same Foundation study found an estimated 1 in 6 of fatal crashes, 1 in 8 of crashes resulting in hospitalization, and 1 in 14 of all crashes in which a passenger vehicle is towed involved a drowsy driver. And, many researchers believe drowsy driving related crashes are grossly under-reported.

If you find yourself having difficulty keeping your eyes opened and focused, drifting from your lane or are unable to clearly remember the last few miles driven and/or traffic signs, it’s time to find a safe place to pull over and evaluate your options.

Here are some tips to remain alert and prevent falling asleep at the wheel while driving:
  • Get plenty of sleep (at least seven hours) the night before a long trip
  •  Stop driving if you become sleepy; someone who is tired could fall asleep at any time – fatigue impacts reaction time, judgment and vision, causing people who are very sleepy to behave in similar ways to those who are drunk
  •  Travel at times when you are normally awake, and stay overnight rather than driving straight through;Schedule a break every two hours or every 100 miles
  • Drink a caffeinated beverage. Since it takes about 30 minutes for caffeine to enter the bloodstream, find a safe place to take a 20‐30 minute nap while you’re waiting for the caffeine to take effect
  • Travel with an awake passenger

For more information about drowsy driving, go to www.traffic-payout.org, and remember to mark your calendars November 11th -17th for Drowsy Driving Awareness Week!


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A Newsworthy Fate

Posted by Unknown in , , , on Tuesday, June 12, 2012

This entry is a guest posting by AAA Foundation research and education coordinator Bruce Hamilton, who shares his thoughts on the May 26 crash that killed recent Yale grad Marina Keegan on Cape Cod. Keegan and Hamilton both grew up in Wayland, Massachusetts.

By now, many people across the country have heard the name Marina Keegan. Her story as an aspiring journalist, killed in a traffic crash just one week after graduating from Yale and publishing her final piece in the Yale Daily News – in which she reminded her fellow students of their shared youth and limitless possibilities – has ignited the national media. Preliminary investigations have indicated that Marina’s boyfriend, who was driving, fell asleep at the wheel. Thankfully, he survived and escaped serious physical injury.

The Foundation has called drowsy driving one of the most significant and under-appreciated traffic safety concerns, and our research has estimated that roughly one-in-six fatal crashes involves a drowsy driver. Additionally, while nearly all (96%) drivers say they believe driving while drowsy is unacceptable, roughly one third (32%) admit having done so in the past month.

While crashes like Marina’s are of professional concern to me, this story actually caught my attention for a different reason. I didn’t come across the news of her death in the Washington Post, New York Times, or any of the other major outlets that covered it. Instead, I first read the story in the local newspaper serving Marina’s and my hometown of Wayland, MA. Before reading about Marina the playwright and journalist, I read about Marina the friend, sister, and daughter, and the girl who loved growing up next to my elementary school.

While I didn't know Marina personally, our town is small and I remember the family name. At dinner on the day I learned of her passing, I mentioned the story and the Wayland connection to some acquaintances. They'd heard about it, but they were unmoved. They reminded me that people die in car crashes all the time; that the national media will never report on most of them; that Marina's story was sad but not "special."

What a potent reminder of why I work in this field.

Traffic crashes leave empty chairs at dining room tables and moments of silence at graduations. Traffic injuries leave victims with lifelong challenges and obstacles, which, to be sure, they confront bravely, but which nobody deserves. Traffic crashes cause violent, preventable deaths.

Traffic crashes are newsworthy.

While I am pleased that Marina’s story has generated interest, I am concerned that some of the coverage has taken on an almost romantic tone while reflecting on fate and loss. The implication is that what is “newsworthy” is some imagined poetic connection between Marina’s youthful writings and untimely death, rather than the fact that her passing was violent and preventable. There has been little, if any, acknowledgment that “justice” for crash victims can come in the form of concerted efforts to prevent future fatalities, and that all of us have a responsibility to keep the roads safe for everybody. One article I read went so far as to say that the lesson learned from Marina’s story is that life and death are entirely beyond our control.

Implicit in the Foundation’s mission is the rejection of this very notion. We work every day to demonstrate that the causes and consequences of crashes can be studied and understood, and that the findings can be used to develop risk-management strategies with tangible, life-saving results. We can never “do enough” for those who have passed away, but until we finally confront the leading killer of young people, we will not be doing right by Marina and the 32,000 other Americans who will share her story this year.

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THE DRIVING DANGER THAT YOU’RE IGNORING

Posted by Unknown in , , , on Thursday, January 26, 2012


by Carole Jackson
Bottom Line’s Daily Health News

Would you let a friend get behind the wheel of a car if he’d just been drinking and wasn’t steady on his feet? The answer is certainly "No." But if you’re like most people in the US, you wouldn’t hesitate to let a friend drive when he’s incapacitated for another reason -- drowsiness. It’s time to wake up to a danger that causes nearly 5,500 deaths a year.

Surprisingly, drowsy driving has gotten little attention compared with other driving dangers, including speeding, drinking alcohol, failing to fasten seat belts or being distracted by cell phones and other devices. That’s why AAA’s recent campaign against drowsy driving caught my attention.

I phoned J. Peter Kissinger, head of the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, who told me that, in his opinion, drowsy driving is the largest unrecognized problem on the highways. In a recent AAA survey of 2,000 drivers age 16 and older, 32% said that they had driven while on the verge of falling asleep at some point in their lives, and 41% admitted to actually falling asleep at the wheel at some point in their lives. And that’s despite the opinion of 96% that it’s unacceptable to drive while drowsy! So why don’t we practice what we preach?

BELTS, BOOZE AND SPEED

The 96% have it right. According to the National Sleep Foundation (NSF), drowsiness is very similar in its effects to drunkenness. It causes slower reaction times, vision impairment, lapses in judgment and delays in processing information. In fact, NSF, which has joined AAA in publicizing the problem, says that being awake for more than 20 consecutive hours results in impairment equal to that caused by a blood alcohol concentration of 0.08%, which is the legal limit for driving in all states. And if you’ve undergone stress or slept poorly the night before, you don’t have to be awake for even that long to experience this level of impairment.

So why are we just now learning about this? As Kissinger put it, traffic safety experts have focused on "belts, booze and speed" and more recently on distractions by cell phones and other electronic devices. Also, statistics, he said, have downplayed the role of drowsiness in fatal crashes because it’s often difficult for investigators to determine if the cause of a crash was drowsiness, drunkenness, distraction or a combination of factors -- in other words, there’s no breathalyzer or blood test for drowsy driving. If a driver veers off the road and hits a tree, for instance, there’s often not any way to tell whether he fell asleep or instead was distracted when he tried to change the station on the radio.

As a result, US traffic statistics typically show that drowsiness is involved in only about 3.6% of fatal crashes, compared with more than 30% for alcohol. AAA has now recalculated the statistics by extrapolating data from accident reports and adjusting for unknown or missing data (like drowsiness). New calculations, Kissinger said, show that nearly 17% of fatal car crashes result from drowsy driving -- that’s on a par with distracted driving, which is thought to account for 16% of crashes. Plus, he added, 60% of people who "nod off" at the wheel do so when driving for less than one hour. "Drowsy driving doesn’t just occur on a long trip," he said. "It can also happen on a shorter trip, such as driving home after a date night with your significant other."

YOUR STRATEGY FOR SAFETY

To prevent an accident caused by drowsiness, Kissinger urges us to...
  • Take a 30-minute break from driving every two hours or 100 miles to drink coffee or another caffeinated beverage. It takes about 30 minutes for caffeine to enter the bloodstream.
  • Sleep at least seven hours the night before a long trip.
  • If possible, travel with an alert and well-rested passenger who will help keep you awake.
  • Stay somewhere overnight instead of extending your drive time beyond the length of your typical day.
In addition, he said, besides the obvious case where you have trouble keeping your eyes open or your head up, you are too sleepy to drive when you...

  • Can’t remember how far you’ve traveled or what you’ve recently passed.
  • Find yourself tailgating or drifting out of your lane.
  • Daydream or have disconnected thoughts.
  • Often yawn or rub your eyes.
  • Miss signs or drive past your exit.
  • Veer off the road and hit the rumble strips on the shoulder.
  • Have to blast the radio and/or roll down the windows in an attempt to stay alert.
What can you say to friends who insist on driving drowsy? Try to talk them out of driving, and if possible, offer to drive them where they're going. If that fails, take away their keys, and don’t be afraid if they become angry. They’ll likely thank you later on, Kissinger said, especially after you mention the statistics on fatalities caused by drowsy driving. A look at the stats will tell them that you may have saved their lives. 

Be well,

Carole Jackson
Bottom Line’s Daily Health News


*This article appeared in its entirety in the Bottom Line’s Daily Health News newsletter

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